September looks to be an excellent month for games, with titles such as Dead Rising 2, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, and the long awaited release of Halo: Reach. However, even with such titles on the horizon, Metroid: Other M is amongst the most exciting. While I’m looking forward to seeing continuations of my favourite series’, a lot has changed in the world of Samus Aran since Prime 3: Corruption and it’s certainly going to be a refreshing experience.
While it’s been known for a while that Ninja Gaiden’s developers Team Ninja have been working with Nintendo on the new Metroid title, and that it would comprise of a mixture of gameplay elements from both 2D and 3D styles, it’s not until more recently that we’ve been given a more detailed idea of exactly how the game will work. But as the game’s release draws closer, I can now give a clearer idea of exactly what you can expect with the new sci-fi adventure.
Set between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion, Other M picks up right after Samus leaves planet Zebes after her encounter with Mother Brain. Following a distress call from a dormant ship, she finds herself exploring the enormous Galactic Federation Bottle Ship, a ship similar to the environment of Fusion, containing multiple environments in an enclosed space station – rainforests, a sub-zero region, a volcanic region and more.
While the game looks to reprise it’s 2D roots, the game is actually all played in a 3rd-person 3D environment. In this way, the game allows for the classic platforming elements that are traditional in Metroid such as exploration, wall-jumping and the morph ball ability – often giving a side view which gives the game a 2.5D look somewhat like Shadow Complex, although Samus can move in all directions rather than on a 2D plane. At other times, however, the game plays with a more top-down view, or even an over-the-shoulder view in the more tense, claustrophobic areas. The space station looks great, giving a mix of different environments while maintaining the classic eerie dankness of the cold metallic interiors.
The combat is perhaps the most interesting aspect to the new title – incorporating a mix of all of the Metroid titles and having its own unique twist. Whilst exploring, the game is controlled with the Wiimote held sideways (in NES controller fashion), and Samus has access to her various beam weapons hearkening to the 2D style of combat. However, if the player points the Wiimote at the screen in the remote style, the game switches to first-person view. While Samus is anchored to the ground in this mode, she can then fire her weapons in first person in a style akin to Metroid Prime. This will allow her to fire in a more precise way, for more accurate shooting such as target points – and also for locating hidden items such as energy tanks. It’s possible to switch between these two modes on the fly, so after a while you should be constantly flicking between fast paced acrobatic gunplay and precision attacks when appropriate.
Alongside this interesting amalgamation of the 2D and 3D realms of Metroid gunplay, Team Ninja have added their own element to the game – for the first time ever, Samus has a selection of melee abilities. With the new “Sense” ability, Samus is able to dodge enemy attacks with well timed taps of the D-pad, and use counter attacks, and she also has access to “Lethal Strike”, and “Overblast” techniques for finishing wounded opponents – involving ramming her gun down an enemy’s throat or leaping upon it’s shoulders to fire an executing shot to the head. While these new moves are a tad more barbaric than anything we’ve seen her do before – it certainly looks cool. It seems as though there will be a decent amount of upgrades to obtain, including suit upgrades (the Varia suit, as always, allows travel through heat), and abilities such as “Concentration” to replenish health.
It seems like quite a mighty task, combining such a mixture of different gameplay styles, but it really looks as though Other M combines the best aspects of all of the Metroid world. With a fleshed out story and a bit more of Samus’ history to uncover, it’s definitely a reason to break out the Wii once more for one of Nintendo’s best series.
Leon
